The first mobile credit card payment bought a coffee in Tim Horton’s today, an event that put Canadians another step closer to being able to leave their wallets at home when they shop.
The buyer was Olympian Simon Whitfield who bought the coffee by tapping his Rogers BlackBerry at a Toronto Tim Horton’s pay terminal, a contactless transaction that saw the coffee paid for on his CIBC credit card.
It was a demonstration of CIBC’s ... Read More …

Almost half of Canadians do not have an emergency savings fund, a new poll found.
Younger Canadians are less likely to have savings, with just 51 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 44 saying they have some money set aside, while 60 per cent of those aged 45 to 64 saying they have such a fund, the Harris/Decima poll for CIBC found.
“Once you’ve experienced the financial challenges that come with a leaky roof ... Read More …

Alex Kodatsky of CIBC has lowered his target price for Ivanhoe Mines from $26 to $20 after Ivanhoe’s management, including founder Robert Friedland, stepped down this week and Rio Tinto agreed to support a funding package for Oyu Tolgoi, which includes a $1.8 billion rights offering and $1.5 billion bridge debt financing.
“The new financing package will be dilutive to NAV [net asset value] and Rio has gained further ownership and ability to defer a ... Read More …

The target prices are similar but the analysis differ for Fortuna Silver (FVI).
Brian Quast of CIBC thinks the company is losing a bit of its lustre (in his words) with Q4 earnings less than expected. Consensus had called for earnings per share of $0.08 but they were $0.00, Quast wrote in a note. And over the past three years, operating costs have almost doubled. So CIBC is reducing its rating on Fortuna from ... Read More …

Lots of B.C. companies were included in analysts’ reports this morning.
Salman Partners increased its target price for First Quantum Minerals (FM-TSX) to $28.13 from $25.85 based on First Quantum’s latest mineral resource and reserve estimates for its Sentinel copper project in Zambia. Using the “pounds-in-the-ground approach” and a valuation of $0.127 US per pound of copper in reserves this adds $2.27 US per share to First Quantum, analyst Raymond Goldie wrote in ... Read More …

Canada’s dollar hit its all-time weakest monthly close exactly a decade ago according to CIBC. Many of us will remember the 62 cent dollar, and those of us who do are probably still amazed that the Canadian dollar now hovers around par.
It’s almost a point of pride – our dollar is as good as your dollar.
But of course it’s not necessarily a good thing for Canada that our dollar is strong, because ... Read More …

Bloomberg and The Vancouver Sun have got together and created an index of British Columbia companies listed on the TSX so now at a glance we can say how B.C. companies are surviving a downturn or benefiting from a surge. The index includes the largest 50 companies by market cap as of Feb. 2 listed on the TSX. We won’t have a starting number until the end of the day but stay tuned.
Meanwhile here’s ... Read More …

From the analysts:
Copper Mountain, which came into production last summer, said it expects to produce an average of 94 million pounds of copper over the next five years, lower than the 108 million pounds forecast in its feasibility study, says Scotiabank analyst Mark Turner (read the Reuters story here). As a result Turner has lowered his one-year target price to $6.70 from $7.50. Shares of Copper Mountain closed at $5.16 on Monday.
Goldcorp ... Read More …

Pending home sales in the United States were disappointing in December, down more than 3.5 per cent after improving in October and November. The British Columbia forest industry is heavily reliant on the U.S. market, though having learned its mistake the industry is now expanding into Asia. But with the U.S. still a big buyer, if housing there suffers so does the B.C. forest industry.
But Jennifer Lee, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets says ... Read More …